On Tue, 15 Sep 2015 12:47:14 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Tue, 15 Sep 2015 11:28:47 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 15 Sep 2015 09:17:21 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Tue, 15 Sep 2015 02:36:33 -0400, wrote:

They are everywhere by the water. They must have some serious pumps in
case of a tidal surge.

Maybe you don't understand what a surge is. No pump in the world is
going to stop the ocean if the entrances to that garage go under.
Doors won't do much either.
You only have to look at what happened to the subways in lower
Manhattan to see that. That was not a direct hit, nor actually even a
hurricane.

===

Well, it was a hurricane right up until it wasn't. My oldest son was
living in an apartment building in lower Manhattan about 200 yards
from the river. They had water halfway up the elevator doors in the
lobby of his building. He normally kept his car in a nearby
underground garage but got it out just in time. All of the remaining
cars were totaled. It was close to a month before they got power and
elevator service restored, not much fun on the 31st floor.

I guess they score hurricanes differently up north. The folks around
here don't even put the shutters up for a Cat 1 and we had tropical
storm winds last night.

===

It wasn't the wind that did the big damage in NY/NJ, it was the 15 to
20 foot storm surge and waves that were created by the winds farther
south. They sometimes get bigger winds in a winter nor'easter.

This was not an unexpected situation. Weather people have been saying
New York was vulnerable to this type of thing for years but everyone
simply ignored it because they had not really had a storm there since
the 30s.
This was far from the worst case storm. I think it was 1938 when they
had a real Cat 3 there.
They had so much non-conforming (FEMA) construction along the beaches
that I am surprised it wasn't far worse.
The surge that went over the battery was not anywhere near 20 feet
(USGS says 8-12) but it was still enough to get into the subways.